


Hiraeth

by HandmaidenOfHorror



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22558831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/pseuds/HandmaidenOfHorror
Summary: In which Mari loses her love but finds her purpose.
Relationships: Ikari Yui/Makinami Mari Illustrious, Makinami Mari Illustrious & Souryuu Asuka Langley
Kudos: 6





	Hiraeth

**Author's Note:**

> Hiraeth (pronounced [hiraɪ̯θ]) is a Welsh concept of longing for home. 'Hiraeth' is a word which cannot be completely translated, meaning more than solely "missing something" or "missing home." It implies the meaning of missing a time, an era, or a person - including homesickness for what may not exist any longer. It is associated with the bittersweet memory of missing something or someone, while being grateful of that/ their existence. It can also be used to describe a longing for a homeland, potentially of your ancestors, where you may have never been. (via Wikipedia)

Sometimes wishes don’t come true; sometimes, they do.

Mari’s birth was a wish come true – during the Comet Welcoming Festival, the forty year old childless woman wished for a child, and soon enough she found herself pregnant. Like often happens with the Children of the Comet, Mari displayed unusual features (nearly canine sense of smell as well as atypically sharp hearing and vision) and as she aged, she was found to possess strong magical potential and allowed to attend a witch school.

Six year old Mari was determined to do the best she could to allow her parents to retire comfortably. And, indeed, her efforts were paying off – she finished all her years at the top of the prefecture, allowing her to graduate early and enter the Imperial Magical University at the age of 16.

Well, turns out that on that level no matter of hard work would get somebody from a low birth of top. Mari found herself perpentually behind Ikari Yui, a slightly older daughter of a daimyō. While initially the other girl mostly frustrated her, her feelings developed over time – the two became friends, and as the next Comet Welcoming Festival was nearing, Mari realized she was in love with Yui.

Mari was unsure what to do. She has never been in love before, and never paid attention to others being in love. It would have been no good asking her parents, after all, who are a farmer and a fisher to a _daimyō’s daughter_? Nonetheless, she decided to ask Yui to spend the Festival together. Mari was determined to confess her feelings while the comet was overhead. After all, the celestial goddess brought her luck once.

It seemed that her luck has worn out. Yes, Yui and Mari spent the festival together. Yes, they had fun, held hands and hugged. Yes, Mari got an indirect kiss by drinking from Yui’s cup when she couldn’t drink any more. And finally, when the Comet was already visible, Yui shared a secret with Mari – she agreed to a marriage proposal by Gendo Rokubungi, a commoner, even though it was bound to cause tension in her family. But Yui didn’t care, she was in love.

Mari congratulated Yui, but internally, she was crushed. Soon afterwards, Yui graduated the university while Mari stayed, hoping to achieve the highest magical titles possible – without them, a commoners daughter is a nobody, even when she is a witch.

Years passed, and Mari felt as if they passed somewhat around her. She was listening to rumors about Yui: she married in secret while still at university! She became pregnant soon after graduating! She caught a blood fever and died a few weeks after giving birth to her first baby.

Mari stopped aging. It happens to witches when they survive a particularly strong shock, they say. They are as if stuck in time, they say. How peculiar that it happened to a witch in the modern times, they say. Mari ignored them, and continued her work.

A few years later she got a peculiar letter – a plea for help from the other side of the continent. A princess has witnessed her mother’s death, both of them witches, and stopped aging out of shock. As Mari was the only person alive with that condition, the king offered any money for her help.

Mari obliged, not only because of the pay, but also because she felt sympathy towards the girl. Both of them must have lost a person they loved above all else. Curiously, both of them had one parent from the Eastern Islands and one parent from the Western Islands, on opposite ends of a continent cowering half a planet.

The travel was surprisingly short and uneventful due to recently built and well maintained intercontinental railway. After examining the girl, now nearly catatonic, Mari came to a conclusion that in her delicate state and young age (little Asuka was only three years old!), it would be for the best to remove the memories of her mother’s death from her mind.

It is a delicate procedure, she told the girl’s father. It would be easier to just hide the memories, but it would cause the risk of them resurfacing with time, to potentially disastrous effects – especially in somebody of a magical potential as enormous as the little princess. The king agreed that a psycho-surgery would be a better option.

And thus, Mari entered little Asuka’s mind. The inner world fit the worst expectations the witch had – the little girl was stuck inside her head, repeating the gory scene of her mother’s death by spell backfiring over and over and over again. It was horrible, but Mari couldn’t let herself get overwhelmed by the drastic vision.

Mari came up to Asuka and hugged the girl tightly. Speaking soft and comforting words, she started to cut the memory outside them and as she cut the last thread, she pulled both the girl and herself out.

She woke up in the girl’s room. They were both alive, but exhausted. Asuka was sleeping, but a simple spell showed that her mind was intact and it was just a normal sleep pattern. Mari felt relieved and for the first time in years, she didn’t feel stuck in the past, as if saving Asuka allowed her to save herself.

Mari couldn’t dwell on the thought for long, as she too fell asleep almost immediately. When she woke up, two days have passed, and the little girl has actually awoken before her, looking at the older witch shyly while partially hidden behind the curtains of the room’s windows. In the light of dawn, her ginger hair looked as if they were burning.

Mari smiled, “Good morning, princess.” And she felt at home.


End file.
